System and method for reducing the size of an electronic message on a mobile communication device

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for reducing the size of an electronic message on a mobile communication device. The mobile communication device may identify address card information in a received electronic message. The mobile communication device may then automatically display a reduced version of the electronic message on the mobile communication device, wherein the address card information is represented by an address card indicia.

FIELD

The technology described in this patent document relates generally tothe field of electronic messaging systems and devices. Moreparticularly, the patent document describes a system and method forreducing the size of a displayed electronic message. The system andmethod described herein is particularly well-suited for use with amobile communication device, such as a cellular telephone, a two-waypaging device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or others.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Typical electronic mail programs enable a user to automatically appendaddress card information to outgoing electronic messages. For instance,address card information may be included in an electronic message toidentify the name, address, telephone number, email address, and/orother information pertaining to the person sending the electronicmessage. Typical mobile communication devices, however, are usuallyequipped with a small display area, relative to a full-sized desktop orlaptop computer. Address card information appended to an electronicmessage that is received by a mobile communication device may thus takeup a large portion of the device's display area.

Systems and methods are provided for reducing the size of an electronicmessage on a mobile communication device. A communication subsystem maybe operable to send and receive electronic messages over a communicationnetwork. A memory subsystem may be operable to store data and programinformation. A processing subsystem may be operable to store andretrieve data in the memory subsystem, execute programs stored in thememory subsystem, and cause the communication subsystem to transmit andreceive electronic messages over the communication network. A userinterface may be operable to display information. An electronicmessaging software application may be stored in the memory subsystem.When executed by the processing subsystem, the electronic messagingsoftware application may be operable to receive an electronic messagevia the communication subsystem, identify address card information inthe electronic message, and automatically display a reduced version ofthe electronic message on the user interface, wherein the address cardinformation is represented by an address card indicia in the reducedversion of the electronic message.

The mobile communication device may be operable to receive a firstelectronic message from a sender, and select a portion of the firstelectronic message that is likely to be repeated in subsequentelectronic messages from the sender. The mobile communication device maythen receive a second electronic message with the mobile communicationdevice from the sender, and determine if the first electronic messageand the second electronic message include a common subject field. If thefirst electronic message and the second electronic message do notinclude a common subject field, then the mobile communication device maycompare the selected portion of the first electronic message with thesecond electronic message to identify repeated information. The mobilecommunication device may then display a reduced version of the secondelectronic message, wherein the repeated information is represented byan indicia.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a typical electronic message displayed on a mobilecommunication device;

FIG. 2 shows a mobile communication device displaying an electronicmessage in which address card information is represented by an addresscard indicia;

FIG. 3 shows a mobile communication device displaying an electronicmessage in which the address card indicia has been selected to displaythe represented address card information;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for reducing thesize of an electronic message displayed on a mobile communicationdevice;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a continued example method forreducing the size of an electronic message displayed on a mobilecommunication device;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for furtherreducing the size of an electronic message received on a mobilecommunication device;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example mobile communicationdevice; and

FIG. 8 shows a mobile communication device displaying an electronicmessage in which additional information is represented by the addresscard indicia.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference now to the drawing figures, FIG. 1 shows a typicalelectronic message displayed on a mobile communication device 10. Theelectronic message includes a sender field 12, a subject field 14, amessage body 16 and address card information 18. Other fields and/orother information could also be displayed, such as a recipient field(i.e., a “To:” field), a copy field (i.e., a “cc:” field), or others.The electronic message may, for example, be received on the mobilecommunication device 10 using a wireless messaging service, anddisplayed on the device using electronic messaging software, asdescribed below with reference to the example mobile communicationdevice 400 shown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 2 shows a mobile communication device 10 displaying an electronicmessage in which the address card information 18 is represented by anaddress card indicia 30, 32. That is, instead of displaying the completeblock of address card information 18, as illustrated in FIG. 1, anaddress card indicia 30 is displayed to notify the device user that thereceived message includes the address card information 18. In theillustrated example, the address card indicia includes a graphical icon32 and a text string 30 showing a portion of the address cardinformation 18. It should be understood, however, that other addresscard indicia could also be used. For example, only the graphic icon 32or the text string 30 could be displayed as the address card indicia, orsome other type of indicia could be used.

In operation, when an electronic message is received by the mobilecommunication device 10, the device identifies the address cardinformation 18 in the electronic message. When the electronic message isviewed, the address card indicia 30 is displayed instead of theidentified address card information 18 to conserve space on the displayarea. The address card indicia 30 may then be selected through the userinterface to display the complete address card information 18, as shownin FIG. 3. In addition, when the address card indicia 30 is selected, adifferent graphical icon 40 may be displayed to indicate that theaddress card information 18 is displayed. For instance, in the exampleof FIG. 2, the address card indicia includes an icon 32 with aninwardly-pointing arrow. When the address card indicia is selected, asshown in the example of FIG. 3, the address card indicia includes anicon 40 with a downwardly-pointing arrow to indicate that the addresscard information 18 is displayed.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 50 for reducingthe size of an electronic message displayed on a mobile communicationdevice. The method 50 begins at step 52 when an electronic message isreceived by the mobile communication device. At step 54, the receivedelectronic message is processed to identify the sender. For instance, asender may be identified from the sender field 12 shown in FIGS. 1–3.

Once the sender is identified, the method 50 accesses a memory locationin the mobile communication device to determine if verified address cardinformation has been stored for the identified sender. If verifiedaddress card information for the identified sender is located, then themethod proceeds to step 58. At step 58, the electronic message isprocessed to locate address card information that matches the verifiedaddress card information. The electronic message is then displayed instep 60 with the matching address card information being represented byan address card indicia, as shown in FIG. 2.

If verified address card information has not previously been stored inthe mobile communication device, then the method proceeds from step 56to step 62. At step 62, the device memory is searched to determine ifnon-verified address card information has been stored for the identifiedsender. If non-verified address card information is located, then themethod proceeds to step 68. Else, if non-verified address cardinformation is not located, then the method proceeds to step 64.

At step 64, the subject field of the received message and apredetermined amount (N characters) of text from the message body isstored to a memory location as the non-verified address card informationassociated with the sender. For instance, the method 50 may store thelast 1000 characters of the received message as the non-verified addresscard information for the sender, along with the subject field of themessage. Because no stored address card information was located,however, the method 50 displays the entire received electronic messageat step 66, including any address card information.

In other examples, different methods may be used to select non-verifiedaddress card information from the received electronic message. Forinstance, the received electronic message may be processed to locatemessage text matching the sender's name or a sub-string of the sender'selectronic mail address found in the sender field. All of theinformation starting with the identified message text to the end of thereceived message may then be stored as the non-verified address cardinformation. In other examples, the method may select message text tostore as the non-verified address card information that includes a phonenumber, an electronic mail address and/or some other information that istypically included in address card information.

At step 68, the subject field of the received electronic message iscompared to the stored non-verified address card information. If it isdetermined that the received electronic message includes the samesubject field as stored with the non-verified address card information,then the method proceeds from step 70 to step 72 and the entireelectronic message is displayed, including any address card information.If the received electronic message includes a different subject fieldthan the non-verified address card information, however, then the methodproceeds from step 70 to step 72 and locates address card information inthe received message that matches information in the stored non-verifiedaddress card information. The matching address card information is thenstored as verified address card information at step 76, and theelectronic message is displayed at step 78 with the matching addresscard information being represented by an address card indicia, as shownin FIG. 2. In this manner, if the same information is included in twoseparate electronic messages (i.e., two electronic messages withdifferent subject fields) that is received from the same sender, thenthis repeated information is verified as address card information anddisplayed as an address card indicia.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a continued example method 80 forreducing the size of an electronic message displayed on a mobilecommunication device. The method 80 illustrated in FIG. 5 begins at step60 with the address card indicia being displayed on the mobilecommunication device. At step 84, the method determines whether this isthe first time that address card information for the particular senderhas been displayed in the form of an address card indicia. If so, thenat step 88 a warning indicia is displayed along with the address cardindicia. For example, with reference to FIG. 2, if it is the first timethat the address card indicia 30, 32 is being displayed on the mobilecommunication device 10 for a message received from the sender (JohnSmith) then some additional warning indicia may also be included. Forinstance, an explanation point may be displayed, the address cardindicia 30, 32 may be displayed in red, or some other warning indiciamay be used to prompt the user to ensure that valid address cardinformation 18 is represented by the address card indicia 30, 32.

At step 90, the method 80 waits for a user to select the address cardindicia. If the address card indicia is selected, then the completeaddress card information is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 3. Whilethe address card information is being displayed, the user may alsoselect an options menu at step 94. If the options menu is selected, thenthe user may choose to a) confirm that the displayed address cardinformation is valid (step 96 and 102), b) manually select informationfrom the received message to store as the verified address cardinformation (steps 98, 102 and 104), or c) reject the address cardindicia and delete the stored address card information (steps 100 and106).

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 200 for furtherreducing the size of an electronic message received on a mobilecommunication device. The method 200 begins at step 201 when anelectronic message is received by the mobile communication device. Atstep 202, the received electronic message is processed (e.g., asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 4) to locate address cardinformation for the sender and to automatically display a reducedversion of the electronic message on the mobile communication device byrepresenting the address card information with an address card indicia.

At step 203, the electronic message is further processed to locate anyaddress fields embedded within the electronic message. For example, ifthe electronic message is a reply or a forwarded message, then aprevious electronic message may be embedded within the receivedelectronic message. If no embedded address fields are located, then themethod ends at step 204. Otherwise, if an embedded address field islocated, then a sender address is identified from the embedded addressinformation at step 206 and the method continues to step 208.

At step 208 the method determines if verified address card informationhas been stored for the identified sender address located in theembedded address field. If no verified address card information islocated, then the method ends at step 204. Otherwise, if verifiedaddress card information is located, then the electronic message isprocessed at step 210 to match address card information in the receivedmessage with the verified address card information. Then, the matchingaddress card information is displayed as an address card indicia at step212, and the method returns to step 202 to locate any further embeddedaddresses.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example mobile communicationdevice 400. The mobile communication device 400 includes a processingsubsystem 438, a communications subsystem 411, a short-rangecommunications subsystem 440, a memory subsystem 424, 426, and variousother device subsystems and/or software modules 442. The mobilecommunication device 400 also includes a user interface, which mayinclude a display 422, a keyboard 430, a speaker 432, a microphone 436,one or more auxiliary input/output devices 428, a serial port 430,and/or other user interface devices.

The processing subsystem 438 controls the overall operation of themobile communication device 400. Operating system software executed bythe processing subsystem 438 may be stored in a persistent store, suchas a flash memory 424, but may also be stored in other types of memorydevices in the memory subsystem, such as a read only memory (ROM) orsimilar storage element. In addition, system software, specific deviceapplications, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into avolatile store, such as a random access memory (RAM) 426. Communicationsignals received by the mobile communication device 400 may also bestored to RAM 426.

The processing subsystem 438, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, enables execution of software applications 424 on the device400. A predetermined set of applications that control basic deviceoperations, such as data and voice communications, may be installed onthe device 400 during manufacture. In addition, a personal informationmanager (PIM) application, including an electronic messaging application424C, may be installed on the device. The PIM may, for example, beoperable to organize and manage data items, such as e-mail, calendarevents, voice mails, appointments, and task items. The PIM applicationmay also be operable to send and receive data items via a wirelessnetwork 419. The electronic messaging software application 424C, whetherpart of or separate from a PIM application, may perform the functionsdescribed herein for reducing the size of an electronic messagedisplayed on the device 400.

Communication functions, including data and voice communications, areperformed through the communication subsystem 411, and possibly throughthe short-range communications subsystem 440. The communicationsubsystem 411 includes a receiver 412, a transmitter 414 and one or moreantennas 416, 418. In addition, the communication subsystem 411 alsoincludes a processing module, such as a digital signal processor (DSP)420 or other processing device(s), and local oscillators (LOs) 413. Thespecific design and implementation of the communication subsystem 411 isdependent upon the communication network in which the mobilecommunication device 400 is intended to operate. For example, a mobilecommunication device 400 may include a communication subsystem 411designed to operate within the Mobitex™ mobile communication system, theDataTAC™ mobile communication system, a GSM network, a GPRS network, aUMTS network, and/or an EDGE network.

Network access requirements vary depending upon the type ofcommunication system. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks,mobile communication devices are registered on the network using aunique personal identification number or PIN associated with eachdevice. In UMTS and GSM/GPRS networks, however, network access isassociated with a subscriber or user of a device. A GPRS devicetherefore requires a subscriber identity module, commonly referred to asa SIM card, in order to operate on a GSM/GPRS network.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, the mobile communication device 400 may send and receivecommunication signals over the communication network 419. Signalsreceived by the antenna 416 from the communication network 419 arerouted to the receiver 412, which provides signal amplification,frequency down conversion, filtering, channel selection, etc., and mayalso provide analog to digital conversion. Analog-to-digital conversionof the received signal allows the DSP to perform more complexcommunication functions, such as demodulation and decoding. In a similarmanner, signals to be transmitted to the network 419 are processed(e.g., modulated and encoded) by the DSP 420 and are then provided tothe transmitter 414 for digital to analog conversion, frequency upconversion, filtering, amplification and transmission to thecommunication network 419 (or networks) via the antenna 418.

In addition to processing communication signals, the DSP 420 providesfor receiver 412 and transmitter 414 control. For example, gains appliedto communication signals in the receiver 412 and transmitter 414 may beadaptively controlled through automatic gain control algorithmsimplemented in the DSP 420.

In a data communication mode, a received signal, such as a text messageor web page download, is processed by the communication subsystem 411and input to the processing device 438. The received signal is thenfurther processed by the processing device 438 for output to a display422, or alternatively to some other auxiliary I/O device 428. A deviceuser may also compose data items, such as e-mail messages, using akeyboard 438 and/or some other auxiliary I/O device 428, such as atouchpad, a rocker switch, a thumb-wheel, or some other type of inputdevice. The composed data items may then be transmitted over thecommunication network 419 via the communication subsystem 411.

In a voice communication mode, overall operation of the device issubstantially similar to the data communication mode, except thatreceived signals are output to a speaker 434, and signals fortransmission are generated by a microphone 436. Alternative voice oraudio I/O subsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, mayalso be implemented on the device 400. In addition, the display 422 mayalso be utilized in voice communication mode, for example to display theidentity of a calling party, the duration of a voice call, or othervoice call related information.

The short-range communications subsystem 440 enables communicationbetween the mobile communication device 400 and other proximate systemsor devices, which need not necessarily be similar devices. For example,the short-range communications subsystem 440 may include an infrareddevice and associated circuits and components, or a Bluetooth™communication module to provide for communication with similarly-enabledsystems and devices.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention,including the best mode, and also to enable a person skilled in the artto make and use the invention. The patentable scope of the invention mayinclude other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 8, an indicia displayed with an electronicmessage may represent repetitive information other than or in additionto address card information. That is, any type of information that isrepetitively appended to electronic messages may be represented by someindicia (e.g., an address card indicia) in the displayed message. In theexample of FIG. 8, an address card indicia 30, 40 is shown thatrepresents repetitive information 502 in addition to the address cardinformation 18. In particular, the example of FIG. 8 shows aconfidentiality warning 502 that has been appended to the receivedmessage from the sender, John Smith. In one further example, addresscard information to be represented by an address card indicia in adisplayed message may be identified by including some type of hidden tag(e.g., an HTML tag) in the electronic message which denotes thebeginning and end of the address card information.

1. A method of reducing the size of an electronic message displayed on amobile communication device, comprising: receiving the electronicmessage with the mobile communication device, the electronic messageincluding address card information; identifying the address cardinformation in the electronic message; and automatically displaying areduced version of the electronic message on the mobile communicationdevice, by replacing the address card information with an address cardindicia.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying theaddress card information on the mobile communication device in responseto the address card indicia being selected through a user interface. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the address card indicia includes aportion of the address card information.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the address card indicia includes a graphical icon.
 5. Themethod of claim 2, wherein in response to the address card indicia beingselected through the user interface, the address card indicia ismodified to indicate that the address card information is displayed. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the address card information isidentified by comparing the electronic message with a previouslyreceived electronic message having a common sender field.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the address card information is identified bycomparing the electronic message with stored address card information.8. The method of claim 1, wherein the address card information isidentified by locating hidden tags included in the received electronicmessage that identify a beginning and an end of the address cardinformation.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying awarning indicia to prompt a user to verify that the address card indiciarepresents valid address card information.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein in the step of identifying the address card information in theelectronic message, the address card information is identified in thebody of the electronic message.
 11. A method of reducing the size of anelectronic message displayed on a mobile communication device,comprising: receiving a first electronic message from a sender;selecting a portion of the first electronic message that is likely to berepeated in subsequent electronic messages from the sender; receiving asecond electronic message from the sender; determining if the firstelectronic message and the second electronic message include a commonsubject field; if the first electronic message and the second electronicmessage do not include a common subject field, then comparing theselected portion of the first electronic message with the secondelectronic message to identify repeated information, and displaying areduced version of the second electronic message on the mobilecommunication device by replacing the repeated information with anindicia; else if the first electronic message and the second electronicmessage do include a common subject field, then displaying a completeversion of the second electronic message.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein the mobile communication device includes a user interface thatmay be used to select the indicia, further comprising: in response tothe indicia being selected, displaying the repeated information on themobile communication device.
 13. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising: storing the repeated information to a memory location;receiving a third electronic message from the sender; identifying therepeated information in the third electronic message by comparing thethird electronic message with the stored repeated information; anddisplaying a reduced version of the third electronic message on themobile communication device, wherein the repeated information isrepresented by the indicia.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein therepeated information includes address card information.
 15. The methodof claim 14, wherein the indicia includes a portion of the address cardinformation.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the indicia includes agraphical icon.
 17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:receiving a user input verifying that the repeated information isaddress card information.
 18. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising: receiving a user input rejecting the indicia; and displayinga complete version of the electronic message, wherein the completeversion of the electronic message includes the repeated information. 19.The method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving a user input toselect address card information in the second electronic message; anddisplaying a verified reduced version of the second electronic messageon the mobile communication device, wherein the selected address cardinformation is represented by an address card indicia.
 20. The method ofclaim 11, wherein in the step of selecting a portion of the firstelectronic message that is likely to be repeated in subsequentelectronic messages from the sender, the portion of the first electronicmessage that is likely to be repeated is selected from the body of theelectronic message.
 21. A mobile communication device, comprising: acommunication subsystem operable to send and receive electronic messagesover a communication network; memory subsystem operable to store dataand program information; a processing subsystem operable to store andretrieve data in the memory subsystem, execute programs stored in thememory subprogram, and cause the communication subsystem to transmit andreceive electronic messages over the communication network; a userinterface operable to display information; and an electronic messagingsoftware application stored in the memory subsystem and when executed bythe processing subsystem being operable to receive an electronic messagevia the communication subsystem, identify address card information inthe electronic message, and automatically display a reduced version ofthe electronic message on the user interface, by replacing the addresscard information with an address card indicia in the reduced version ofthe electronic message.
 22. The mobile communication device of claim 21,wherein the address card information is identified in the body of theelectronic message.